


Do Fish Have Fingers?

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Learning Normal, Finding Home [7]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Multi, children being bullied, fishies!, it's okay though he explodes a water fountain and they stop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-24
Updated: 2013-11-24
Packaged: 2018-01-02 11:35:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1056283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's all fun and games when Bobby Jackson's first grade class goes to the aquarium.<br/>Until, that is, it's not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do Fish Have Fingers?

The first grade class had a long-standing tradition of a winter field trip to the aquarium. This year's was _extra_ special, though, because Bobby Jackson was in the first grade.

It wasn't like he'd never _been_ to the aquarium before – quite the opposite, his family went all the time – but he loved going and plus _both_ of his daddies worked there.

Needless to say, Bobby was very excited.

Mommy had offered to go as a chaperone, but Bobby had decided with some input from Marina that that might be kind of parent overload and that would kind of ruin it. He got all three parents at home all the time.

The class was greeted on arriving by Nico.

“Hi everybody!” he said once the 20-ish first graders had clumped around him. “My name is Nico di Angelo; I work in the aquarium's office, but you probably know me better as one of Bobby's parents. I'll be leading your tour today.”

Bobby and his best friend, Mollie, cheered.

“If we hurry, we'll be able to catch the 10am aquarium show,” Nico announced, and he hurried the children along with the help of the teacher.

As they scurried along toward the big open tank with the bleachers around it where the show was, they passed tanks with smaller fish that crowded up toward the glass as Bobby passed.

_Bobby!_ They cheered, _the grandson of the sea god's come to visit!_

Bobby waved, but didn't answer out loud for fear of his classmates hearing.

They were all settled on the bleachers just in time for the show to start, with Mollie and Bobby in the front row of course. Nico slid onto the end of the bench next to Bobby.

Daddy was part of the show, playing with the dolphins and such. Bobby knew Daddy could see him, because he'd grinned and waved when he'd caught his eye.

After the show part, there was a Q and A session. Bobby didn't raise his hand, because he didn't have any question he couldn't ask at home (and plus he knew Squirt and Kevin – the dolphins – personally and if he really wanted he could ask _them_ questions later).

“And, hey,” Daddy finished, looking directly at Bobby's class, “if you guys think of any other questions, I'm coming in for career day next month!”

Then the class split off into smaller groups led by the chaperones. Unfortunately, Mollie and Bobby ended up in a group with the stupidest bullies in the class, Emery and Val.

Usually they just ignored them, Bobby and Mollie did. But today they'd taken to following Bobby closely and making dumb comments about his parents.

“Are you and your sister really so _horrible_ that your mom and dad couldn't handle you by themselves?” Emery said.

“Leave me alone,” Bobby snapped.

“Ignore him, Bobby,” whispered Mollie. “He's only stupid.”

“Which one's your real dad, anyway?” Val asked, shooting a look in Nico's direction.

“They both are,” replied Bobby.

“Bobby, stop,” Mollie said. “Don't let him -”

“No way,” said Emery. “You can only have _two_ parents. A mom and a dad. _Duh_.”

“Stop it,” said Mollie, squeezing Bobby's hand and stepping forward.

“Maybe nobody ever told him 'cause they knew he was too stupid to understand,” Val said.

That was it. Nobody calls a descendant of Athena stupid. “Leave. Me. _Alone!”_

The water fountain behind Bobby exploded.

The force of the water knocked Val and Emery to the ground, soaked through. But Bobby and Mollie, even though they'd been standing directly between the hole in the wall where the pipe spewing water was and the other boys, were completely dry. Bobby was holding so tightly to Mollie's hand that it almost hurt, but she was too stunned to care.

“What just happened?” she said quietly.

“The – the water fountain -” began Bobby.

“Bobby,” Mollie said, her voice shaking just slightly, “we're dry.”

“The water must'a missed us.”

“There is still at this moment water spraying us, Bobby,” Mollie pointed out.

“Oh,” said Bobby. “ _Oh_. I'll – uh – I'll explain later.” He pulled her away from the jet of water, over to where Nico was standing with Mrs Baker, one of the chaperones. “Dad, did you _see_ that?”

Nico nodded. “Yeah, kiddo, I did. We should go find your teacher. And some dry clothes for those two. And your daddy.”

“Can Moll come?” Bobby asked. He held up their still joined hands.

“Yeah, for now,” Nico replied. He ruffled her hair. “I like you. Thanks for sticking up for Bobby.”

“ _Da-ad_ ,” said Bobby, blushing. “I can stand up for myself.”

“And you did. But so did she. Say thank you,” said Nico.

“Thanks, Moll,” mumbled Bobby.

“You're welcome, Bobby.”

“Lynn, I'm going to see if I can go find Mr Donaldson,” Nico told the other parent. “We'll be back in a few.”

Mollie was allowed to help Bobby and Nico look until they found Mr Donaldson, and then she was sent back with him, to show him where the others were. Bobby had to stick with Nico, who brought him to the office and had the assistant call for Daddy.

“You broke the water fountain,” was the first thing Daddy said.

“I did,” replied Bobby.

“Pretty spectacularly,” Daddy continued.

“You could say that,” Bobby agreed.

For a moment, nobody said anything. They just sat across from each other at Nico's desk and stared at each other.

“I'm not sure whether I should be angry or proud,” Daddy said finally.

“You should be proud,” Nico said. “Annie's going to be angry, because he caused a whole lot of trouble with no plan whatsoever and then made no effort to clean up or handle the situation. So take the opportunity to be proud of him, 'cause he just demonstrated pretty fantastically that he's inherited more of your powers than we knew to expect.”

“And how are you planning to feel about this?” Daddy asked.

“Neutral towards Bobby, controlled rage toward -” Nico began, then stopped himself, clearing his throat. “That is, I have a phone call to make once we send Bobby back to his classmates.” He stood up. “Call Annie, okay?”

“Yeah,” said Percy. “She'll want to know. I'll do that now.”

“Good,” Nico replied. “Okay, Bobby, let's go face your teacher.”

–

In the car on the way home after school that day, Daddy and Nico had a hushed conversation in Ancient Greek. Bobby didn't understand all of it, which was probably the point, but he got the idea. 

It went something like:

“ _So who was it you called, exactly?”_

“ _The parents of the kids he soaked.”_

“ _Why? To apologise?”_

“ _No, because of what happened before. And to apologise, I suppose. I didn't exactly say the word.”_

“ _What happened?”_

“ _Did you know he's bullied? Those two kids, they were teasing him. Seemed like a regular thing.”_

“ _He's never said anything.”_

“ _Well I think they just pushed too far today.”_

“ _Oh.”_ A pause. _“So you called their parents -?”_

“ _Just to bring it to their attention. No threats, not yet. They're just kids.”_

“ _That's – that's really parenty.”_

“ _I've had some time to adjust.”_

“ _No, but I just – you caught me by surprise.”_

“ _I think I might be offended by your lack of faith in my parenting abilities.”_

“ _Don't be. It just means you've grown as a parent in the last few years.”_

“ _Yeah, yeah.”_

A laugh. _“I love you, you know. Especially when you do things like this for the kids. Don't think I haven't noticed that you've finally accepted that they call you Dad too.”_

“What?” Nico said, so startled that he switched to English and almost crashed the car. “ _What did you just say?”_

Daddy laughed. “ _I love you. It's not like it hasn't come up before.”_

“ _Not like that it hasn't!”_ insisted Nico. “ _Not with you looking at me like – like that.”_ He waved one hand in Daddy's direction.

“Eyes on the road,” Daddy said, glancing back at where Marina and Bobby were sitting in the back seat, pretending they weren't listening in. “We can talk about it with Annie later, how's that?”


End file.
